Last year, the Louisiana-based band Givers made their first trip to D.C. to open for Dirty Projectors. The young band won over a crowd that was not there to see them. Tuesday night they returned to Black Cat, now filling the role of the headliner.
Opening for Givers were District-locals Deutschmarks, a trio that served their function of warming up the crowd but offered little else. Led by guitarist Chris DeWitt, the band competently made their way through about a half dozen tunes that left the audience about as happy as one would expect with an opening act. DeWitt displayed some strong vocals, but Deutschmarks are by no means setting the music world ablaze.
After Deutschmarks gave way to Givers, it became clear just how much energy was in the Louisiana band’s arsenal. The three musicians from Deutschmarks gave it their head-banging all but looked downright sleepy next to Givers’ liveliness. The opening song, “Up, Up, Up,” was off the band’s self-titled EP and worked as a great way to get the audience into the style of the group. The song represented what would be seen for the rest of night. Like many of the other songs from the band, “Up, Up, Up” leaned heavy on percussion and the back-and-forth vocals between Tif Lamsom and Taylor Guarisco.
The group continued playing songs off their EP with “Meantime,” a song that showed off the versatility of Lamsom. Besides sharing vocals duty with Guarisco, Lamsom played guitar, ukulele and percussion. “Meantime” also let Guarisco show the crowd that he has fantastic guitar skills. While jamming, he looked like a man possessed as his eyes rolled back into his head above his big grin. In fact, just about every member of Givers had a smile plastered to their face as long as they were playing.
Drummer Kirby Campbell provided most of the percussion for the band. His shining moment came with “Sneaky Wajoo,” a song that started with him and Lamsom bashing the drums with tribal-like intensity. For most of the show, the pair of percussionists would hit the drums as if they had somehow wronged them. Lamsom was hitting the hi-hat cymbals so ferociously that bits of wood from her drumstick went flying.
While there was a ton of loud percussion, the vocals did not suffer. Both Lamsom and Guarisco were very smooth despite the fact that their songs require a fairly wide range. Lamsom took a solo song on the ukulele, showing off her incredible talent of moving back and forth between booming rock vocals and toned-down, jazzy sultriness.
In between songs, banter was mostly limited to the typical "thank you's" to the city, fans and every other rock band cliché. Lamsom did note that they had never seen this much snow before since they do not get any back home in Louisiana. But what they lacked in banter with the audience they more than made up for the rest of the concert.
They would go on to play “Saw You First” — another song off of their EP. The song’s chorus has one of the strongest hooks in their arsenal. This was one of the more popular songs of the night, most likely because it is one of the few songs that has been released. Later in the set, Lamsom and Guarisco continued their call-and-response type singing with “Wanna Want It.” The song was driven by bassist Josh LeBlanc, providing an interesting change of pace for an otherwise percussion-heavy show.
The night ended with an encore where the band played “Ceiling of Plankton,” a catchy tune that is probably the closest thing to a single found on their EP. For really only the second time, the audience was able to sing along with the band since most of the other songs were virtually unknown to the crowd. But this much is known about Givers: they radiate fun. It is difficult to stand still while listening to this band live. Everyone on stage seemed to have a great time and the audience at Black Cat could not help but join in on the festivities of this small party from Louisiana.
You can reach this staff writer at slindauer@theeagleonline.com.
